Shining Force
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- If you are looking for information on the Shining series in general, please see Shining series
| Shining Force: Legacy of Great Intention | |
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| Developer(s) | Climax Entertainment Sonic! Software Planning, Amusement Vision (Game Boy Advance port) |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Platform(s) | Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console |
| Release date |  20 March 1992 / 1993 July, 1993 |
| Genre(s) | Tactical role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E |
| Media | 24 megabit cartridge |
Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention, More commonly referred to as Shining Force, is a 1992 turn-based strategy role-playing video game for the Mega Drive/Genesis console. While primarily a traditional fantasy-themed game, it contains some steampunk elements. Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon, is a 2004 remake of the game for the Game Boy Advance console. It includes a significant amount of changes (see below). Dark Dragon, who was defeated years ago by the ancients, has returned to earth. As the people have forgotten about him, they are unprepared for the invasion. Hordes of evil monsters were cast into the land. Max and his "Shining Force" are going to become the last hope of good and fight fiercely against Dark Dragon and his followers
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[edit] Gameplay
Shining Force is a turn-based tactical RPG. Battles take place in square grids, and each unit occupies 1 square. Units can belong to one of 2 sides: allies (controlled by the player) or enemies (controlled by the computer AI). Each unit can both move and perform one action, including attack, cast a spell, use an item, search or stay, on its turn. Some commands such as equipping or dropping items don't count as actions. The order of the turns is determined by the unit's agility score and a random seed. Units can use offensive actions only on units belonging to the other side, and they can use supportive actions only on units belonging to the same side.
Following the standard method of an RPG, units become stronger by fighting enemies and performing some actions. These actions give the units experience points (EXP.), which allow them to gain levels. While in the original Mega Drive/Genesis version only ally units can gain experience points, in the 2004 remake for Game Boy Advance enemy and ally units alike can gain experience points. This bears some resemblance to some other strategy RPGs such as Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics.
On Shining Force, each ally unit is represented by a character with its own background and personality, much like the Fire Emblem series. There are no "generic" units, except on the enemy side. However, many of these characters give little or no contribution to the plot.
Each ally unit also have a class, which defines a set of abilities for that unit. Once a unit reaches level 10, it can advance to another class, called "promotion". A unit can be promoted at any level after 10 up to the game's maximum of 20; the longer the player waits to promote a unit, the stronger it will be after being promoted, and as promoted units are returned to level 1, the stronger they will ultimately become.
Battle goals for the player's (ally side) are fairly simple: either kill all enemies, or kill the enemies' leader. The enemy side wins when they manage to kill the player's leader, Max, or when the player chooses to escape the battle. However, even if the escape choice is made or Max is killed, one can recover the allies and fight the same enemy again. Since the main character always carries the experience and money gained, regardless of the battle outcome, the game is considerably easier than most strategy RPGs. There is no Game Over, and most of time, the player's army gets stronger even if the ally side is defeated.
Most games from the Shining Force series (with the exception of the Game Gear and Sega CD games) also possess an exploration mode, besides the regular battle mode. This gameplay mode is more similar to a traditional RPG game. In this mode, one plays as the Shining Force leader (Max), and one can walk around, interact with people or the scenario, and set the members and equipment of the player's force.
[edit] Plot
The game opens in the Kingdom of Guardiana, in the land of Rune. The non-speaking protagonist, Max, is sent on a mission to prevent the evil Darksol, who commands the hordes of Runefaust, from opening the Shining Path and resurrecting Dark Dragon. Along the way, Max recruits a number of allies to join the Shining Force. Opposing the Shining Force are foes such as Kane and King Ramladu, who were both corrupted by Darksol. Eventually Max forges the legendary Chaos Breaker, and uses it to reach the Castle of the Ancients, where Darksol plans to resurrect Dark Dragon.
In the game's final confrontation, a wounded Darksol sacrifices himself to release Dark Dragon. The Shining Force ultimately prevails, and Max seals away Dark Dragon using the Chaos Breaker. As the castle begins to crumble, Max teleports his allies to safety, while he stays behind. The other characters watch as the castle sinks back into the water, and Max is presumed dead. However, after the credits, it shows Max in a different land. This leads up to Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict.
The storyline is expanded in the Game Boy Advance remake. A plot-line has been added into the game, which follows the princess of Runefaust, Narsha, and plays out at the end of the early chapters. The second plot eventually merges with the original plot line, when Narsha is united with the Shining Force. Narsha questions her father's motives in the war between Guardiana and Runefaust. After being forced to her room, Darksol sends assassins. She is saved by an enigmatic being called Mawlock, who tells her to seek Max and the Shining Force. When Narsha fights her first solo battle, she awakens an assassin called Zukia who joins her. Mawlock eventually returns to lead Narsha and Zukia to the Shining Force. All three characters join the force at that time.
[edit] Development
While the game is the first in chronological order in the Shining Force series, it is the second game released in the series, of which the first game released Shining in the Darkness, taking place somewhere between Shining Wisdom and Shining the Holy Ark. The transition from Shining in the Darkness to Shining Force was a major change, with few elements between the two games being shared, save for the names of certain items and spells. Another significant change was in gameplay. Shining in the Darkness was a dungeon crawler in first-person perspective, while Shining Force was a third-person strategy RPG game. The Shining series flips between many gameplay styles: returning to first person dungeon crawler for Shining the Holy Ark; adopting Legend of Zelda mechanics for Shining Wisdom; and the Shining Soul games being inspired by Diablo, for instance.
The game was first released in 1992 in Japan, and 1993 in North America and Europe. It's been re-released in 1999 for "Sega Archives form USA" (Japanese), in 2000 for Sega Smash Pack 2 and Sega's Greatest Hits 2, both for PC, in 2001 for "Sega Smash Pack for Dreamcast", and again in 2002 for "Sega Smash Pack Twin Pack" for the PC.
The game was remade in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance under the title Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon. The changes included expanded plot, new playable characters, increasing difficulty level (starting considerably low, but increases whenever the player finishes the game and begins a new play), and some tweaks in the gameplay (including the ability of using "cards" in battle).
On July 10th, 2007, Shining Force was released for the Wii Virtual Console in Japan, on July 23rd, 2007 in the United States & on August 3rd, 2007 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand
[edit] External links
- Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention at MobyGames
- Shining Force Megadrive/Genesis review from Mean Machines Archive
- sega-16.com Sega-16's complete retrospective on the series.
- A Large Collection of Shining Force Sprites on The Spriters Resource
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